Make Cake Pops Ahead of Time – Freeze When Fully Decorated!

If you ask me to name my favorite sweet to decorate, I won’t hesitate to tell you it’s cake pops. There’s just something so stickin’ cute about treats on sticks! The downside to making cake pops is that they can be very time-consuming, depending on the design. While character cake pops have been some of my favorite to make (at the top of my list are my rosy-cheeked Santa cake pops), they have also taken the longest to make. That’s why I became determined to find a way to make cake pops ahead of time by freezing them. And I didn’t want to just freeze the rolled cake balls, I wanted to freeze the fully decorated final product, sprinkles and all. With a little R&D I figured out the best way to do it. Now you too can make your cake pops ahead of time so all you have to do the day of your event, is thaw them and put them on display in your favorite cake pop stand!

Since I wanted to find a way to freeze fully decorated cake pops, my scarecrow cake pops were the perfect subject for testing. I used a little bit of everything to decorate these babies…. candy, sprinkles, and even food coloring markers.

What you will need to freeze your fully decorated cake pops:

Wax paper

Bubble wrap

Gallon-sized Ziploc bags

Start by loosely wrapping a piece of wax paper around each cake pop. Make sure the entire pop area is completely covered and twist the wax paper around the stick. The goal here is to provide some added protection against condensation forming on the cake pop surface.

Then, line a Ziploc bag with a sheet of bubble wrap to make a cushioned resting place for your cake pops. Fill the Ziploc bag with a single layer of cake pops. Turn your cake pops in different directions to fit more in the bag. Place another sheet of bubble wrap on top of the cake pops and seal the bag.

Repeat this process until all of your cake pops are wrapped and in bags. Set your bagged cake pops in the freezer in an area where they will lay flat and undisturbed until you are ready to take them out.

To thaw your cake pops, remove them from the freezer and let them sit untouched for at least a few hours. You do not want to unseal or unwrap them until they have completely thawed. When you are ready to remove all the packaging, have some melted coating on hand in case you need to glue on a few embellishment that were knocked off in the process.

I have to make 150 cake pops for this weekend and I really hope this works for me because it would save me so much time. I have usually been telling people to enjoy them with in a week of when I prepare the dough. I have been prepping by baking cakes all day and freezing those, do you think freezing the dough again after the cake has been frozen already would make the dough taste weird?

Okay so this time around I made the choice to use the already freezes cake, rolled the ballsnand freezed them again. I made a test one and it tasted perfect! I made my orders and they all turned out perfect! For now on though, I will be baking all my cakes, rolling all the balls and then freezing them one time. I also did some other tests. I froze an unwrapped pop (I did wrap some parchment paper around it) and a wrapped pop (the normal clear treat bags) both I put in freezer bags and both I put in those glad containers. I took them both out to thaw at the same time and they were totally fine!!! I do run the AC on in my home, so they weren’t thawing out in heat. I am glad I tested this though, I feel like the only way to really know if something world for you is to try it out yourself.

How long can I store dipped and sprinkled cake pops in the refrigerator? (Made some for my nieces b-day party but she had to cancel due to illness. She is rescheduling but wont be for 3 weeks after the original date.)

I have frozen finished cake pops for over a month. I put them in their bags individually. Carefully bag them in a zip lock bag and then into a plastic container. Into the freezer. I put them in the refrigerator for a day before bringing them to room temperature. No condensation and just as fresh as the day I made them. My husband even likes to eat them slightly frozen!! I have made them ahead of time for customers and give them the above instructions and have had absolutely no complaints and plenty of reorders!!

What is the proper way to freeze the cake pop balls? Can I put them in ziploc bags, etc? I want to make them a day or 2 ahead of time then decorate them at the same time. Can they be decorated frozen, or how long to they need to thaw for before decorating?

Thank you so much for this tip. I am trying this as we speak. Mine are in the deep freeze for an event I have tomorrow night. I am so nervous as this will be my 1st time doing these for an event. I will have to come back and let you know how everything works out.